Hong Kong: time for the return of the comeback kid?

BOOM TO BUST

Perennially popular, Hong Kong regularly received upward of 50 million visitors a year pre-pandemic. In 2019, research company Euromonitor International ranked Hong Kong as the number one city for global arrivals for the 10th year in a row. And while Asian markets have typically served as Hong Kong’s bread and butter, UK visitors remained a steady feature, and the only European country to number among its top 10 for visitation.

“Hong Kong had always been a popular stopover,” notes Nikki Hain, product manager at Premier Holidays. While the operator’s clients mostly visit Hong Kong as part of a multicentre holiday, unless VFR, Hain says it’s long been popular with holidaymakers heading onwards to Australia, New Zealand and other parts of Asia, particularly Bali.

“The connections to other destinations within Asia and beyond are fantastic, allowing clients the option to stop in Hong Kong on the way out and on the way back if they wish. There is so much to see and do in Hong Kong now, and we have focused a lot on the fact that 75% of Hong Kong is green and not just the sprawling metropolis that people often think of.”

The destination has, however, been less buoyant since 2019. Following a nearly three-year Covid-induced hiatus, which was preceded by a tumultuous 2019 when violent anti-government protests swept through the city’s streets, Hong Kong had seemingly all but dropped off the travel radar. It wasn’t until 1 April 2023 that all quarantine and testing requirements were lifted for inbound travellers, long after almost all its Asian neighbours. 

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

Back in 2018 Premier Holidays experienced a 40% year-on-year increase for Hong Kong; fast forward to this year and the operator has only recovered to 30% of its pre-pandemic sales. 

“The riots and then Covid meant business dropped to zero,” says Hain, leaving the destination at a “huge disadvantage” to its competitors Bangkok and Singapore. “Following our recent campaign and trade training webinar, we are starting to see some bookings,” she says. “It is very early days and we saw a similar pattern with the other Asian cities when they first fully opened. We are confident business will bounce back, but it will take time.”

Those returning to Hong Kong after this extended break are unlikely to feel disappointed. The vertical city’s signature hustle and bustle – and cliched but accurate portrayal as a blend of old and new, east and west – remains a draw. But that’s not to say it’s some kind of humdrum business as usual. A slew of luxury names including Rosewood, The Fullerton and St Regis, have flung open their doors since 2019, as well as a raft of more modest, mid-range properties. 

And new attractions have taken root since last orders were called, beefing up Hong Kong’s cultural credentials. In late 2021 the M+ museum of visual culture, which aims to rival London’s Tate Modern, welcomed its first visitors; and in mid-2022 the Hong Kong Palace Museum opened, showcasing artefacts from the national Palace Museum at the Forbidden City in Beijing. 

In places, what was once familiar now looks a little less so. The Peak Tram, a time-honoured tourist haunt, still zooms up to Victoria Peak and Sky Terrace 428 with surprising speed on a gravity-defying incline: but after a 14-month renovation project the attraction features new roomier tramcars with skylights, and a slick new terminus. Meanwhile, the city’s former grand dame of hotels, the ultra-luxe Regent, has been revived after serving 22 years as The InterContinental.

Some things, however, remain comfortingly unchanged. At the richly historic Luk Yu tea house in Central, little has altered in the last 90 years. Step through its heavy doors and you’ll be transported to another world full of nostalgia. Fans languorously turn overhead; crockery clinks as it’s stacked by kitchen porters; locals circle their go-to dim sum dishes on ordering paper; and waiters sporting utilitarian white jackets stamped with red Chinese characters pace between tables, delivering bamboo steamer baskets filled with shrimp dumplings and barbecue pork buns. Between its stained-glass murals, rosewood panelling, mirrored banquet seating, and dining room busy with chatter, Luk Yu is at once formal and convivial. A true microcosm of Hong Kong and all its glorious contradictions. 

Book it: Premier Holidays offers a 12-night twin-centre package to Hong Kong and Bali, with Cathay Pacific flights, from £1,749pp. Price includes four nights in Hong Kong, and eight nights in Bali at five-star hotels. Price valid for 24 March 2024 departure, and based on two sharing; premierholidays.co.uk